Having made three senior appearances as a blindside flanker, Farrell was brought on as a late substitute at inside centre. But it was more an act of desperation than an attempt by Saracens to placate England head coach Andy Robinson.

Alan Gaffney, Saracens' director of rugby, explained: "We just decided to give Andy a run out. We thought that we needed something different at that stage of the game."

But the result was decided by the time Farrell made his cameo appearance, thanks to Lamb's ability to create space for those around him. Rudi Keil benefited from a lovely break by Lamb, and then from a superbly timed pass to score the only tries of the contest.

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Gloucester are thankful England have so far resisted the growing clamour to cap Lamb. Dean Ryan, Gloucester's director of rugby, said: "Ryan is not ready for England yet. We have got to be careful not to mix Ryan's enormous potential with the here and now."

Ryan emphasised the point by replacing Lamb with the more conservative Ludovic Mercier for a tense final quarter. Mercier kicked the deciding penalty that maintained Gloucester's unbeaten Premiership record.